GTwpa provides a way to authenticate to the wireless network (LAWN), without having to use a web browser or type in a password every time you associate with the wireless network. GTwpa also provides users with better security between their laptops and the wireless access point with which they are associated, and allows 802.11n capable devices which are connected to 802.11n Access Points to take advantage of higher data rates than are possible with GTwireless.

GTwpa is available everywhere that GTwireless is available on the Atlanta Campus including the Hotel and Conference Center. Anyone who can use GTwireless can use GTwpa, including sponsored guest accounts, although these accounts take a few minutes to get created in GTAD.

The final step required to move "GTwpa" from a Pilot to a Production status will occur on the morning of Friday May 14th, 2010. This service update requires the change of the "GTwpa" SSL certificate which previously had the name "wcs-demo.gatech.edu". Users who have configured GTwpa have accepting the "wcs-demo" certificate and will now have to accept the new certificate (gtwpa.lawn.gatech.edu). Most operating systems (OSX, Windows 7) and devices (iPhone, iPod touch, etc) will require you to accept the production certificate (gtwpa.lawn.gatech.edu). Like the previous configuration, this should only be an issue the first time you connect after the change is made on Friday morning.

With this step, we have completed a year long pilot of GTwpa, which included a variety of configuration changes and infrastructure hardening steps. GTwpa will be the recommended configuration included in the FASET materials for summer 2010. Currently over 20% of LAWN users are using GTwpa to authenticate, most of whom are using it everyday and no longer use GTwireless. GTwireless will remain in place as a fallback for clients that are not GTwpa capable, but we do want to know about those cases to see if we can address those client specific issues or at least document the issues for other users.